Lamar girls hoping to make run with spring break behind them

Published 7:00 am, Tuesday, March 22, 2011

It was a light week for the Lamar softball team. But it was still a good one with a 13-3 victory over Orangefield Tuesday in the only game the squad played during spring break.

The victory lifted head coach Melvin Jenkins’ girls to 11-5 overall as his squad turns its attention to a schedule that has only District 20-5A contests left on it.

“We are playing well,” said Jenkins. “I think overall the spring break came at a good time for us. It allowed the girls to have a few days off and I think we’ve been able to put some of the little things behind us. I think now we’ll come back ready to really focus in on the remainder of the first half of the district and then the second half of the district season.”

They began this week with the game that could very well decide the district championship because they took on HISD power Bellaire Tuesday evening at Butler Stadium. Both teams were 3-0 in the district and will likely finish 1-2 in the league standings.

Jenkins said you can’t say enough about how dominant Bellaire has been in HISD.

“We’re hoping we can make a good game of it,” he said. “We’re striving to be where they are and that’s the best team in HISD. I think until someone comes and takes it from them, you’ve got to say they are the best team in this district. But we always look forward to playing them and we feel like if we play well and tighten up our defense that we can play with them.”

The bottom line goal though is to make the playoffs and whether his girls won the Bellaire game or not, Jenkins believes his team will turn up their level of play through the final six weeks of the season.

“I do think we have run in us,” he said. “We’re hoping that we can start to put a winning streak together and I feel like we can. I think we’re getting good pitching and our lineup is doing very well. I think if we can eliminate the mistakes from our defense, I think we can be a very good ballclub that is capable of beating anyone.”

Dani Allen was the starting and winning pitcher against Orangefield, but it was senior Brittany Lilly got stood in the circle against Bellaire Tuesday night.

Allen needed just five innings to throttle the Shorthorns and the Redskins broke the game open by scoring nine runs in the fifth inning.

“It was a tight game and then we had a really big inning,” said Jenkins. “We batted around in that inning. The girls were real aggressive at the plate, but they also did a good job of taking pitches. It was one of those innings you always hope you have. Dani pitched well and we got the bats out when we needed too, so it was a good win. And they’re a good team. We just had the one big inning that was the difference.

Shortstop Gessenia DelaCruz, who is still batting over .600, had a home run to lead the explosive offense. Erika Fernandez also clubbed a pair of doubles and Meredith Viera drove in three runs.

Jenkins said there is really only one thing holding his team back right now and they will continue to work at it.

“We’ve got to continue to get better defensively,” he said. “And we’re not even asking the players to make the spectacular play. Just make the routine play. And right now, there are times we’re making the routine play and there are times we’re not. And if we’re fortunate enough to get into the playoffs and we want to make the deep run into the playoffs, which is our goal, we need to eliminate our errors. So that’s something we’ll keep working on because we’re reaching the point in the year where your pitching and your defense have to be at their best.”